Creating a more responsible community with YOU leading the way!

Shower Gel – Do it yourself!!

For some time already, we have been using natural soap bars at home in order to avoid the shower gels, which come in a plastic bottle. Apart from the plastic packaging, we have also started to realize the amount of chemicals which are being used in the production process. We both decided it would be a good time to start living without plastic packaging and chemicals. Living in Bangkok, we have been coming across a wide variety of great natural soaps, so the transition period has been easier than expected.

As I am the more zero waste person in the household most of the new homemade products have been a blessing for me. My husband still misses his shower gel, so I started to do some research and found something worth trying out. Remember, that any recipe you try out will still require some time from you as well as some personal adjustments, because everyone has different preferences….

As castile soap is quite pricey in Bangkok, I have tried the recipe with the natural soaps, which I have purchased locally and it has worked for us.

What you need (apart from the natural soap):

sharp knife or grater

large pot

funnel

whisk

You can either use a glass flip top bottle or a recycled shower gel/ shampoo plastic bottle from before (Gel must be cooled down before using a plastic bottle in order to avoid leakage of chemicals). Some people prefer not to have glass bottles in their shower in case of breakage. There is nothing wrong to up cycle some existing products.

Depending on where you purchase your soap, the recipe will require some adjustments. Here is what has worked for me so far:

Cut 100 grams of soap into smaller pieces (Soft soaps work well with a knife whereas you would use a grater for the harder soaps)

Add the soap pieces to the pot with 500 ml water. Soap should dissolve quite fast and become bubbly. Make sure to stir constantly! It shouldn’t burn to the bottom of the pot.

After the soap has dissolved, the mixture could still be quite liquid. Let it sit for a while, but continue stirring. It will turn eventually into a gel type liquid.

Let the mixture sit over night and stir it the next day. In case you are not satisfied with it, you can either add more water or soap.

Fill the bottle to 3 parts with the gel, but leave some space in case it turns harder over the next few days. You can always add some hot water!

If you prefer a creamier shower gel, then you could blend it in the mixer for about one minute.

Additional treatment options:

Replace the water with natural tea (chamomile, lime blossoms, sage, thyme) – works well as an anti-inflammatory

Add two tbsp of either coconut, – olive, or almond oil, then add it to the mixer – especially for people with dry skin

As you can see, making your own Shower gel is easy and you will actually know about every single ingredient in it. Have you tried it already? If yes, what have you used? What has worked for you? Would love to hear more about your experiences…

Would love to learn more from this community. What has worked for you?